


Past Tense (ON HIATUS, TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED)

by Blueblur1991



Series: Aftermath - a Sonic AU (ON HIATUS, TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED) [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Death, Gen, No Romance, Post-Forces AU, Post-Metal Virus AU, Rush is sad boi sometimes, Swearing, implied PTSD, tags will be added when new chapters are posted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22487788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueblur1991/pseuds/Blueblur1991
Summary: What would you do if your past caught up to you?Two weeks after the Metal Virus Crisis, and two-and-a-half months after the War to Take Back Mobius was won by the Resistance, Rush the Hedgehog finds himself headed to South Island for the first time since the war ended.There, he reunites with his friends, deals with painful memories, and comes face to face with an old adversary.But said adversary isn’t himself—or should I say, his former self...Part one in a series of stories.Author's note: I will post new chapters on an irregular schedule. This means that I won‘t adhere to timeframes or anything. When they're ready and I want to post them, I'll post them.——————Edit from April 13th, 2020: The rewritten first chapter has been posted, and the original versions of the first chapter and second chapter have been removed.
Series: Aftermath - a Sonic AU (ON HIATUS, TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617973
Kudos: 6





	Past Tense (ON HIATUS, TEMPORARILY DISCONTINUED)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At a hotel in Spagonia, Rush gets a visit from a familiar pink hedgehog, and has a nightmare about the beginning of the Phantom War.

_(third-person point of view)_

_Red Ring Inn, Spagonia, 12:07am..._

Rush couldn't sleep, so with a yawn, he got out of bed and put on his gloves. It's about two weeks or so since the Metal Virus Crisis ended. The world is still cleaning up from that and the Phantom War...

Safe to say, things have _not at all_ been good.

He got up, brushing the tiny, frazzled, dark blue quills on his head back into place with his hand. He patted the tuft of white fur on his upper chest. He slipped on his Chao-themed slippers and went to get a glass of milk from the hotel room's fridge.

Rush hasn't exactly had a home since the war began. So he's in Spagonia, which held up well during the war. Sunset City back on South Island... Not so much. Cleanup is still ongoing.

Rush is currently at a place called the Red Ring Inn. A very nice and well-maintained place. Fair prices. Plus, they offer a 20% discount if you just so happen to know Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic. The Blue Blur, endowed with the gift of super speed and the savior of the world many times over. He helped Rush when things got rough back during the war...

Rush hasn't seen him in a month and a half. “ _I hope he's doing okay,_ ” Rush thought.

He grabbed the milk jug from the fridge and poured some into a glass he got from of a cabinet. Then he put the jug back. Just as he went to take a sip...

_***DING-DONG*** _

...the doorbell rang. He set the milk glass down.

“Who could be up at this hour?” The navy hedgehog wondered out loud.

Then he goes to open the door to the hotel room. As he open it, Rush sees a familiar face.

“Hello, Rush,” she says. It's Amy Rose, Sonic's hammer-swinging girlfriend. “Amy?” Rush questions.

“Yep.” Amy replied.

“What're you doing here?” Rush asked.

“I've been looking for you. Where on Earth were you?”

“I've been all over the world, helping people get back on their feet during the post-war cleanup. During the Metal Virus Crisis, I was up on the Space Colony ARK.”

“Going around the world, helping people through the fallout...” After saying that, she sighs.

“Just like Sonic.”

“Yeah. Just like him. How's he doing, by the way?”

“He's okay. A little shaken because of the Metal Virus Crisis, but he's okay.”

“Speaking of the Metal Virus Crisis, I heard that right before that, Neo Metal Sonic reappeared. That must’ve been a helluva fight, huh?”

“Yeah. You should’ve seen the look on Knuckles face when he took the Master Emerald back. It was so dopey. Heh.”

“Wish I was there...”

There was a pause for a couple of seconds. “Come back to us, Rush,” Amy spoke.

“Huh?”

“Come back to us. We miss you. Tails misses you, Sonic misses you, I miss you. Everyone does. Please.”

“Amy, you know I can't do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because... Being on South Island... Especially Sunset City... It brings back bad memories....”

“Rush, I'm sorry...”

“Don't be. It was in the past. She's gone, and she's not coming back.”

“Rush...” She placed a plane ticket on the counter.

“If you want to come back, despite those bad memories, take that ticket and head to Spagonia International Airport by ten o'-clock tomorrow morning. I'll be there. Okay?”

“Alright.”

They shook hands.

“Be safe, Amy.”

“I will, Rush. I will.”

Amy closed the door as she left, then he took his gloves and slippers off, drank the glass of milk he left out, and went back to the bedroom in silence. As he laid on the bed, succumbing to the grasp of sleep, he thought back to the beginning of the war. He fell asleep, not knowing what dream would await him...

———————————————————

_(Rush's point of view)_

_Sunset City, South Island, 7:04pm, eight-and-a-half months ago..._

_“Rush, run... Now!” A voice shouted behind me. The voice came from a black and white hedgehog with red eyes. It was my sister, Shade the Hedgehog._

_I stood in front of Shade. That masked guy, a jackal by the looks of it, was floating in the air above her and I._

_I was terrified out of my mind._

_“Rush, run! Please...”_

_Shade, my younger sister, lay behind me in pain. I tried my best to guard her with my life._

_“Rush!”_

_Our parents' dead bodies laid on the opposite side of the street. The jackal killed them. The jackal, with a gemstone on his chest, landed on the ground._

_“ **You two.** ”_

_I trembled in fear._

_“W-what do you want from us?” I said, shaking. The masked jackal tilted his head to the side a little._

_“ **I can taste your terror, children. All that anxiety and doubt... It's delicious. And yet, I feel something else. You two have a spark deep within yourselves. A spark of**_ **hope.** ”

_“W-what do you mean? And who are you?” I asked. Shade stayed silent, knowing she couldn’t get me to budge._

_“ **I am Infinite. Hope is what drives the weak to become strong.** ” Infinite raised a hand towards me._

_“ **So I'll have to kill you two before you are able to grow strong and rebel. A shame, really. I could see you two becoming powerful warriors. Alas, it was not meant to be.** ” I trembles even harder, scared for mine and Shade's lives. Mostly mine._

_“No! Please don't kill us! We'll do anything! Please!” I pleaded._

_Infinite retracted his hand and adjusted his mask._

_“At least spare my sister!”_

_“ **Your sister?** ”_

_“Please! If you're going to kill someone, kill me and leave Shade alone!”_

_“ **Very well. What is your name**?”_

_“R-Rush the Hedgehog.”_

_“ **Well,**_ **Rush... _Farewell._** **_I'll tell the citizens that I choose to spare that you died trying to fight me, and your sister escaped during the fight._ ** _”_

_“Shade, go!” Shade tried to get up, but she couldn’t. Her arm was broken. Infinite raised his hand towards me again and charged up a laser beam of red energy._

_“ **What do you wish to have as your epitaph? How about ‘Here lies the navy-colored coward’? Fits wonderfully, does it not?** ”_

_“I don't give a shit, just leave her alone!”_

_“ **Language, child. Wouldn’t want to have your last words be vulgar, now would we?** ”_

_“Just get on with it! Let her flee!”_

_“ **Very well, then. But your sister will be sent to the afterlife to see you by my hand one day, Rush. Goodbye.** ”_

_“NO!” I heard from behind me._

_Just as he fired his laser beam, Shade jumped in front of me and took the blow. She fell to the ground, lifeless._

_“SHADE, NO!!!” I shouted._ _In grief, tears streamed down my face._

_“ **Well... I did not expect that to happen.** ”_

_“Y-you...”_

_“ **What?** ”_

_“You... Killed them... My parents... Shade... N-now... I'LL KILL YOU!!! RAAGH!”_

_I got up and, in a blind, grief-fueled rage, delivered a hard right hook to Infinite’s mask, breaking it in two. I saw his face; left eye yellow, right eye blue, with a white scar over his right eye._

_“You... You broke my mask.”_

_“SO?!”_

_I tried punching him in the face again, but he disappeared and reappeared midair._

_“I will give you ten seconds to flee, screaming in fear, or I will snap your neck like a twig. Your ten seconds start now. Ten. Nine.”_

_I picked up a strange blue blaster that laid on the ground. It looked like an ocarina, but with a gray handle and a trigger._

_“Eight. Seven.”_

_I mustered all the courage I had and pointed it at Infinite._

_“Six. Five.”_

_I was primed and ready to shoot._

_“Four. Three.”_

_My hand trembled. I no longer had the grief-fueled rush of adrenaline and anger that followed Shade's death. Instead, fear washed over me._

_“Two. One.”_

_I dropped the blaster and ran away, screaming. I was terrified. Infinite laughed as I ran as far as I could before my legs gave out. I fell to the floor, tired._

_“Green Hill... Need to... Get there... Find Sonic...” I spoke, panting on the ground, seconds away from blacking ot._

_Infinite then spoke from afar._

_“Oh? Did you not hear the news, child? Sonic the Hedgehog is dead. I slew him in the square half an hour ago.mWhatever hope you had... It is nonexistent now. Hahahahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”_

_Infinite's laugh was the last thing I heard as I slipped into unconsciousness._

———————————————————

_(third-person point of view)_

Rush woke up in a cold sweat, panting. It was now morning, as the view from the window told him. He had remembered the day Dr. Eggman started to take over the world. The day the Phantom War began.

He looked around and saw the clock. It read “ _9:33am_ ”.

“I'm going,” Rush said to himself.

He put on his gloves and boots. He grabbed his empty backpack, unzipped it, and stuffed it full of all of the stuff he brought to the Red Ring Inn. His laptop, his slippers, his video games and consoles, among several other things. Y'know, the essentials.

He then zipped up his backpack, put it on, and grabbed the plane ticket. On the back, it read in neat handwriting, “ _Remember, Spagonia International Airport. Be there by 10! -A. Rose_ ”.

Determined, Rush opened the door, went down the elevator, checked out of the hotel, and stopped just outside the doorway of the Red Ring Inn.

“ _No turning back now,_ ” Rush thought to himself. He then walked onto the right lane of the road.

“ _Time to face my past._ ” He began to run through the road, on his way to the airport.

_[END CHAPTER ONE]_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to see more news on Past Tense, and Aftermath, the story series Past Tense belongs to, as well as news on other upcoming stories of mine, follow my Twitter, @Blueblur1991_. Here's a link: https://mobile.twitter.com/Blueblur1991_
> 
> Have a good morning/day/afternoon/night!


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